Specifically, that’s what the duo of Teague Moriarty and Matt McNamara are planning with their new restaurant in the former Bottle Cap/Washington Square Bar & Grill space.

Moriarty and McNamara — who also own the Michelin-starred Sons & Daughters and nearby Sweet Woodruff, and earned Chronicle Rising Star Chef status in 2012 — took over the space at end of December, and now we have the details surrounding their specific plans. They’ve been looking for a new space for a year and a half. When they heard that the Bottle Cap folks might be looking to sell, they jumped at the opportunity to take over the historic North Beach restaurant, which had its Herb Caen-fueled heyday in the ’70s and ’80s.

The Square is slated to open in March, and according to legend (or rather: books, old newspaper articles) the name is a reference to the preferred nickname of Ed Moose’s bygone legend.

“We were vacillating between ‘Washbag’ and ‘the Square’ but I couldn’t [come around on] ‘Washbag,'” says Moriarty. “I started doing research on it, and read that the locals all referred to it as the Square. Herb Caen called it the Washbag, but Ed Moose hated that.”

The basic premise of the Square, says Moriarty, is to cook up their own food in an approachable setting, while resurrecting the conviviality and spirit of the Washington Square Bar & Grill’s glory days.

They’ll utilize many of the flavors and ingredients with which they’ve made their name at their other restaurants, but unlike Sons & Daughters — where Moriarty admits that many of the dishes may be on the esoteric side — they want the Square to be affordable and accessible, a neighborhood spot and boisterous watering hole. The menu will be small, with four to five items in each category (starter, entree, sides), and will lean toward classic American dishes; there will be a burger, for example.

“We want to have the fresh clean flavors we’re doing over there [at Sons & Daughters], but we also want the tourists and Pier 39 hotels not feel that it’s so unapproachable,” he says.

That goal of neighborhood approachability will extend to the physical space. They’ve taken down the center wall dividing the space into two rooms. Half the room will be reservations-only; the other half will be the cocktail-pouring bar area and another dining area reserved for walk-ins.

***

Another item of note: Moriarty and McNamara will implement a 15 percent service charge at the Square.

It’s something they’ve done for the last year and a half at Sons & Daughters, to great success. But while the automatic service charge is an increasingly common sight at tasting menu restaurants, it’s been less frequent at casual restaurants (Incanto and Chez Panisse Cafe are two a la carte restaurants that have long implemented service charges).

“A big motivation for us is that with cost of living going up, we need to even out the rate of pay between lower and high end positions. For us as owners, it’s a way to have a qualified kitchen staff,” says Moriarty. “We’re also trying to do it so we can get more permanent long-term employees.

They were a little nervous when they first switched to the system at Sons & Daughters, he says, fearing that their servers and guests might not be on board. But they’ve only had one guest complaint in the past 18 months, and with higher hourly wages, the servers are making just as much money. Moriarty says that the change has created “a much stronger, cohesive team at the restaurant … It feels like one.”